You are on page 1of 3

Comrade Kosciusko’s tiny guide to brainwashing

06/15/2002
(originally posted at libertyforum.org)

Historical and Personal Context

This is a topic that interested me for a while – I have had some interesting experiences in Poland (some of them as early as elementary school and high school)
where a teacher or principal (old, experienced party apparatchik) through fairly short conversation would be able to swap my beliefs 180 degrees. After a while I
would be quite shocked, and would wonder for weeks how could something like that be possible.

This was not at all a unique experience. All throughout education process in ex-communist countries there were special classes of “defense training” which apart
from teaching useful military and survival skills were also pumping official political-military dogmas. It started in elementary school and continued all the way
through university.

For me, the university part was most interesting. Technically in the Eastern Block every male became a soldier after turning 18 years of age. At that time everyone
faced a draft board and was issued a soldier’s ID. The assumption was the person was already a soldier since upon completing high school the military service
would begin. Those who got accepted to a university (you had one shot at it) would be “transferred” to that university’s military school (every university had one)
and begin their officer’s training there.

The reason this was particularly interesting is that, unlike the high school, the guy doing the “political” training was an experienced military political propaganda
officer and that for me this happened when they had little chance of success since all of Poland was in the midst of a rebellion. So the whole “training” degraded to
an emotional game of poker where the teacher’s job was to provoke a reaction by pumping most primitive dogmas supplemented with heavy shock therapy and the
students’ job was to pretend that the training was working and never allowing true feelings be known – even through blinking of an eye. THIS was FUN!!! – I mean
poking ADL commissars is good too – but all they do is run short, boring canned scripts - nowhere as much fun as the real improvising, THINKING thing – as is the
case with pros trained in the Eastern Block.

The experts among us would try the more advanced level – equivalent of playing “Russian Roulette”– making statements that sounded like insults that could be re-
interpreted as greatest compliments. Examples of such things exist in the Slavic literature. For example in Sienkiewicz’s “Quo Vadis” everybody compliments Nero
for his “performance” and the character named Petronius says – “this was total garbage.” Everybody thinks - “bye, bye – Petronius.” But Petronius continues –
“This would be great for an ORDINARY poet, but not you, divine Nero!!! You need more FIRE!!!” Nero is all happy and says “You are my best friend, Petronius –
you are the only one who understands me.”

One of the results of such state of affairs – every day practice and lots of training literature - was that large part of the population got a good training in art of
propaganda and brainwashing.

Upon arrival to US I was quite shocked to find out that all the simplest brainwashing tricks are utilized with great success – for example “it’s for the children” trick.

It is one thing to watch idiots buy tons of crap they do not need thanks to clever brainwashing in advertising campaigns – it is entirely another to watch US people
be manipulated into doing things totally contrary to their interests.

It is really sad state of affairs that the USA, through abandoning its non-interventionist policies, has become a primary propaganda battleground for all fanatical
groups in the world. US used to be the place a person would run to in order to escape religious cults and political fanatics, where one could live in peace by simply
supporting himself and family.

This is no more – US is now the place where combatants in potential conflicts begin their battle FIRST – the most important front where the wars are decided
through spin before bullets fly in remote parts of the globe. Note how Serbs who merely fought Muslim fanatics and drug dealers ended up bombed only because
they thought the merits of their case was enough. They neglected the propaganda battle and paid a terrible price.

For better or for worse – the US is now in “the Game” and it is important to know the tricks. The other bad news is that the US inherited some commissar
propaganda masters from the eastern block.

Here is the problem – there is no black and white in propaganda, no good or bad, no verifiable facts that matter – only spin that lives its own life and often becomes
more important than reality. Even worse problem is that people with strongly defined beliefs make very poor propaganda operators and have very poor propaganda
immunity. For example, if you believe in greatness of American culture or Christianity – you have these puritan images in your mind – pretty girls dancing in a
meadow. All a potential propaganda attacker has to do is to bring an image of a Clinton relative doing his daughter in his trailer – and he’s got you jumping through
walls.

To be honest the libertarians are the only group in the US that I have any respect for. I really dislike all fanatical crusaders and I rather despise the fact that America
has made me into a crusader.

Anyway – the reason I am bringing this topic is that I believe that weapons such as propaganda and immunity to it should be in possession of every person and not
confined to government operators. Hopefully, this should arm logical, reasonable people and disarm the fanatics who simply play and replay scripts designed by
others.

I am looking forward to learning all what others know about the subject.

Let the games begin.

Theoretical Base

Brainwashing is a technique that allows to program responses and behavior through bypassing of normal brain functions – like logic and reason.

In great simplification, human brain consists of two parts:

1. Associative data-base
2. Processing unit that allows programming new data into the associative data-base
Look at the Part 1 as a giant collection of interconnected data, without any intelligence in it. For example – analyze your behavior in relation to following picture:

“Dog says: I have nothing against a Bush in the White-House.”

You should smile because your brain will retrieve two associations, second one being a dog having another plant (one more joke) to piss on in the White House.
Now draw a dog with Ariel Sharon’s face and have him say that. The associations in your brain will pop and make you act upon whether you feel like it or not. All
our knowledge is stored in form of associations.

Look at the Part 2 (processing unit) as the only mechanism preventing garbage from entering your data-base and the only part that has any logic or reason
functionality. All new experiences (data) encountered are judged against previous data and either allowed to pass to the data-base or be rejected. When everything is
clean, only logical-non-conflicting information (or associations) checked out against previously stored knowledge can enter the data-base. Under certain
circumstances, however, faulty, corrupted information is programmed into the database and we have a big problem. Some of the “corruptions” can be manifested
through or even corrected through dreams (really a simulation of real feedback that allows your brain to fake information that passes through the processing unit). If
the inconsistencies are severe, behavior in entire area of inconsistency can be suppressed and only very advanced training can allow facing/correcting such a
problem.

What can cause your brain to let faulty information pass? The answer is very simple – anything that overwhelms your “processing unit.” Namely – all emotions
(also known for the purpose of brainwashing as “buttons” to “push”). Everything that makes you happy, ecstatic, sad, angry, disgusted, irritated, tired, etc can be
used to overwhelm the “processing unit” to the point where much less “processing power” is available for the filtering functions and things can enter your brain that
you would never let there under “normal” circumstances.

We all are constantly exposed to brainwashing of smaller or bigger level. Often brainwashing is done as a learnt, programmed trick without understanding theory
behind the process. Examine the tricks of car-salesmen, for example: As part of the “procedure” the salesman will enquire about your job, position, etc. Will then
compliment you with this or that, plugging “you are so rich” quietly somewhere in there while you are all happy about being so admired. Well, since you are so rich,
it would not make sense for you to haggle over the sticker price or interest rate too much. You sign the papers like a “rich man,” take the new car home, have bad
dreams about the affair for a couple of days and then wonder for days how you could be so dumb. (Sounds familiar? – this is only the most basic trick.)

The whole “game” was well practiced in the “Wild East.” Military officers, intelligence officers, or even the chess players were taught all the tricks. I remember
seeing some movie about a Russian chess master winning a top-level game against an American by using such “disgusting” tricks as putting a match in his ear and
then (the same match) in his mouth. While the American was shocked, the Russian was plugging him with misinformation. The bigger the “shock” associated with
the “button” the better – you can “get away with murder” if the button is good and plug whatever garbage you want in there. Part of good training would include
immunizing you to all common tricks.

A good brainwashing message therefore consists of two parts - the carrier pressing the button (used to overwhelm your “logic processor”) and the desired
programming itself. The desired programming should best be a simple association that can be easily stored in the database. Sometimes the carrier and the message
overlap. Examine the famous commercial that cost Goldwater the election. If I remember correctly it was a little girl, then Goldwater, then a nuclear explosion. The
shock of an association of a little girl combined with (being destroyed by) a nuclear explosion was used as a carrier to program the “Goldwater=Nuclear Explosion”
association. As always, real facts (Goldwater’s political ideas) do not stand in a way of a good brainwashing.

To resist brainwashing it is important to recognize “incoming carriers” and look for the desired programming. To prevent the message from affecting others it is only
necessary to disable the “carrier button.” Contradicting the “desired programming” is unnecessary and counterproductive.

I cannot resist using my favorite example here, which, I am sure, everyone has seen. Question US aid to Israel and be bombarded with Holocaust pictures. This is a
fairly primitive technique but it works on everybody but medical doctors. The carrier is the disgust and shock of seeing human bodies abused and dismembered, the
desired programming is “Opposing aid to Israel=Nazism.” It does not matter how elaborate your argument in opposing the aid is. The carrier button will overwhelm
your argument unless you disable the carrier button.

How to disable that particular button. Well – you can either desensitize yourself and everyone else to the sight of open/dead bodies the same way it is accomplished
with future medical doctors (hours of training in the morgue) or find a way to counter the button:

1. Escalate – show that Israel kills people too (not that good – it is like a childish argument in a sandbox: A. you are ugly! B. You are uglier!)

2. Emotionalize – show shock – ‘how DARE you suggest I do not care”

3. Reuse – post uglier pictures and state your message – such as US’s involvement can cause another Holocaust

4. Reverse – ask if the pictures show dead Jews or dead kulaks killed in Russia

5. Ridicule – like our “Chicken Holocaust” stunt

6. Drown – immediately show concern about the picture, ask for context, drown the “desired programming” through other concerns.

None of these methods is perfect – shock of death is a powerful emotion. Here is the bigger problem though – the stunt has been used so many times it becomes
ineffective or even counter-productive. People have a tendency to rebel against things that cause them pain. I hope people will never take pleasure in seeing
Holocaust pictures, but it is one of the possible ways to rebel.

Programming of Americans

There is one group of people that has achieved a “special status.” This is completely illogical and counterproductive for everyone (special group included). There is
nothing wrong with gaining America’s support through logical, rational process. It is another to accomplish such state of affairs through ugly mind tricks. Even if we
ignore the fact that such state of affairs might be slightly unfair to the Americans, the bigger problem is that such things can lead to a backlash.

Examine your reaction to:


Many Italians lie!

Any reaction? How about?


Many Poles lie!

How about?
Many Jews lie!

Most likely, you have been conditioned to immediately withdraw in face of that statement. After all – only NAZIs and ANTI-SEMITES could even THINK
something like that. Why is that? What is the difference between Jews and Italians? Also try – “I hate French” versus “I hate Jews.” Could any of you even THINK
of writing the second statement?

Here is the issue – we are exposed to constant, relentless, massive brainwashing about the Jewish victim-hood. Any attempt to discuss anything Jewish/Israeli will
expose you to load of statistics and cry stories about poor, abused Jews or the Holocaust pictures. You are expected to shut up and pay up and this is what US and
Americans were doing for years. A whole army of activists is there to “correct” you whenever you “step out of line.” Most of the activists do not even know they
have been brainwashed as well and are only running “the script.”

I have seen some news footage of some “American” school. A Jewish woman was “teaching” 8-year old, mostly Korean girls about the Holocaust. The girls were
crying in shock. Off course the fact that Korea is one of the most contested spots in the world, with “atrocities” stories easily matching those of European Jews did
not matter much. Logic or facts are not an issue in brainwashing – just programming the required behavior.

The situation is getting highly unstable. Americans are told that even “thinking” of discussing say USS Liberty is Nazi-like, that to value say Texans over Jews is
sick and “hateful.” Or that suggesting that an American’s first loyalty is to America and not to Israel is somehow pathological (see the Pollard case).

Any logical analysis of the situation must conclude that this setup cannot last much longer. How much longer can Americans hate themselves for the benefit of
Israel? This is not really healthy. Where can it all go? A mind (especially the collective one of a nation) has a habit of violently acting/reversing against self-
destructive behavior. When the backlash comes, will it simply be dislike for all “victim” brainwashing, or will it be something else? When “I am an Anti-Semite”
becomes acceptable, how about “I am a Nazi?”

This is the problem – I would hope that Nazism does not become popular as a result of the “backlash.” Nazism, unlike anti-Semitism, is very well defined. Nazism is
the most horrid “invention” of man, an idea that allowed the state to turn millions into ash without blinking an eye. I hope that people can stand up to the primitive
brainwashing by stating “I am an Anti-Semite when the Semites act badly” and thus be able to consciously confront and disable the very tool that was used
against them and their interests. This is the key – say “I am an Anti-Semite” and watch the “activists’ program” crash. Only AFTER you do that logical discussion of
any taboo subjects is possible.

The only other option is waiting and watching the collective sensitivities (which were corrupted by tinkering) totally disappear to allow Nazism as natural
“solution.” The choice is yours.

You might also like